A TRANING REPORT ON

MEJIA THERMAL POWER STATION

`

FOR THE PERIOD OF THREE WEEKS FROM 16.06.15 TO 07.07.15 at

MEJIA THERMAL POWER STATION
(DAMODAR VALLEY CORPORATION)
P.O. MEJIA, DIST. BANKURA WEST BENGAL-722183

by
ABHINAW KUMAR RAI
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
BANKURA UNNAYANI INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The dissertation has been prepared based on the
vocational training undergone in a highly
esteemed organization of Eastern region, a
pioneer in Generation Transmission & Distribution
of power, one of the most technically advanced &
largest thermal power stations in West Bengal,
the Mejia Thermal Power Station (M.T.P.S), under
DVC. I would like to express my heartfelt
gratitude to the authorities of Mejia Thermal
Power Station and BANKURA UNNAYANI INSTITUTE OF
ENGINEERING for providing me such an opportunity to
undergo training in the thermal power plant of
DVC, MTPS. I would also like to thank the
Engineers, highly experienced without whom
such type of concept building in respect of
thermal power plant would not have been
possible. Some of them are:
1) Mr. Parimal Kumar Dubey
2) Mr.
3) Mr.
4) Mr.

INTRODUCTION
Damodar Valley Corporation was established on 7th July
1948.It is the most reputed company in the eastern
zone of India. DVC in established on the Damodar River.
It also consists of the Durgapur Thermal Power Plant in
Durgapur. The MTPS under the DVC is the second
largest thermal plant in West Bengal. It has the
capacity of 2340MW with 4 units of 210MW each, 2
units of 250MW each & 2 units of 500 MW each. With
the introduction of another two units of 500MW that is
in construction it will be the largest in West Bengal.
Mejia Thermal Power Station also known as MTPS is
located in the outskirts of Raniganj in Bankura District.
It is one of the 5 Thermal Power Stations of Damodar
Valley Corporation in the state of West Bengal. The total
power plant campus area is surrounded by boundary
walls and is basically divided into two major parts, first
the Power Plant area itself and the second is the Colony
area for the residence and other facilities for MTPS
employees.

MEJIA THERMAL POWER STATION

(4 210MW+2 250MW+2 500

MW)
X

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION OF
MTPS
INSTALLED CAPACITY: 1) Total number of Units : - 4 X 210 MW(unit 1 to 4) with Brush
Type Generators, 2 X 250 MW(unit 5 and 6) with Brush less Type
Generators, 2*500 MW(unit 7 and 8) Generators.
2) Total Energy Generation: - 2340 MW
3) Source of Water: - Damodar River
4) Sources of Coal: - B.C.C.L and E.C.L, also imported from
Indonesia
Station

Unit no.

MEJIA TPS

1,2,3&4
5&6
1&2

MEJIA TPS

Capacity(MW
)
210
250
500

Boiler
Make
BHEL
BHEL
BHEL

Turbine
Make
BHEL
BHEL
BHEL

In a Thermal Power generating unit, combustion of fossil fuel

(coal, oil or natural gas) in Boiler or fissile element (uranium,
plutonium) in Nuclear Reactor generates heat energy. This
heat energy transforms water into steam at high pressure
and
temperature. This steam is utilised to
generate
mechanical energy in a Turbine. This mechanical energy, in
turn is converted into electrical energy with the help of an
Alternator coupled with the Turbine. The production of
electric energy utilising heat energy is known as thermal power
generation. The heat energy changes into mechanical
energy
following
the
principle
of
Rankine reheatregenerative cycle and this mechanical energy transforms into
electrical energy based
on
Faradays
laws
of
electromagnetic
induction.
The
generated
output
of
Alternator is electrical power of three-phase alternating current
(A.C.). A.C. supply has several advantages over direct current
(D.C.) system and hence , it is preferred in modern days.
The voltage generated is of low magnitude (14 to 21 KV
for different generator rating) and is stepped up suitably with
the help of
transformer
for
efficient and economical
transmission of electric power from generating stations to
different load centres at distant locations.

OVERVIEW OF THERMAL POWER

PLANT
A thermal power plant continuously converts the energy stored
in the fossil fuels(coal, oil, natural gas) into shaft work and
ultimately into electricity. The working fluid is water which is
sometimes in liquid phase and sometimes in vapour phase
during its cycle of operation. Energy released by the burning of
fuel is transferred to water in the boiler to generate steam at
high pressure and temperature, which then expands in the
turbine to a low pressure to produce shaft work. The steam
leaving the turbine is condensed into water in the condenser
where cooling water from a river or sea circulates carrying

away the heat released during condensation. The water is then

fed back to the boiler by the pump and the cycle continues. The
figure below illustrates the basic components of a thermal
power plant where mechanical power of the turbine is utilised
by the electric generator to produce electricity and ultimately
transmitted via the transmission lines.

COAL HANDLING
PLANT

Coal
transported
from mines by
railway wagons

Unloaded to a
moving
underground
conveyor belt

Crusher
house
(20mm)

Dead
storage
(40 days)

Combustion

Live storage (

hrs)
(BOILER HOUSE)

Boiler (hot
air+coal
dust)

Pulverized
coal (200
mesh)

COAL
MILL

COAL HANDLING PLANT

PROCEDURE

Generally most of the thermal power plants uses low

grades bituminous coal. The conveyer belt system
transports the coal from the coal storage area to the
coal mill. Now the FHP (Fuel Handling Plant) department
is responsible for converting the coal converting it into
fine granular dust by grinding process. The coal from
the coal bunkers. Coal is the principal energy source
because of its large deposits and availability. Coal can
be recovered from different mining techniques like
shallow seams by removing the over burnt expose the
coal seam
underground mining.

The coal handling plant is used to store, transport and

distribute coal which comes from the mine. The coal is
delivered either through a conveyor belt system or by
rail or road transport. The bulk storage of coal at the
power station is important for the continues supply of
fuel. Usually the stockpiles are divided into three main
categories.
live storage
emergency storage
long term compacted stockpile.
The figure below shows the schematic representation
of the coal handling plant. Firstly the coal gets
deposited into the track hopper from the wagon and
then via the paddle feeder it goes to the conveyer
belt#1A. Secondly via the transfer port the coal goes to
another conveyer belt#2B and then to the crusher
house. The coal after being crushed goes to the stacker
via the conveyer belt#3 for being stacked or reclaimed
and finally to the desired unit. ILMS is the inline
magnetic separator where all the magnetic particles
associated with coal get separated.

WATER TREATMENT PLANT

Raw water supply:
Raw water received at the thermal power plant is passed
through Water Treatment Plant to separate suspended
impurities and dissolved gases including organic substance and
then through De-mineralised Plant to separate soluble
impurities.
Deaeration:
In this process, the raw water is sprayed over cascade aerator
in which water flows downwards over many steps in the form of
thin waterfalls. Cascading increases surface area water to
facilitate easy separation of dissolved undesirable gases (like
hydrogen sulphide, ammonia, volatile organic compound etc.)
or to help in oxygenation of mainly ferrous ions in presence of
atmospheri oxygen to ferric ions.
Coagulation:
Coagulation takes place in clariflocculator. Coagulant
destabilises suspended solids and agglomerates them into
heavier floc, which is separated out through sedimentation.
Prime chemicals used for coagulation are alum, poly-aluminium
chloride (PAC).
Filtration:
Filters remove coarse suspended matter and remaining floc or
sludge after coagulation and also reduce the chlorine demand
of the water.

Chlorination:
Neutral organic matter is very heterogeneous i.e. it contains
many classes of highmolecular weight organic compounds.
Humic substances constitute a major portion ofthe dissolved
organic carbon from surface waters. They are complex mixtures
of organic compounds with relatively unknown structures and
chemical composition.

DM (Demineralised Water) Plant

In De-mineralised Plant, the filter water of Water Treatment
Plant is passed through the pressure sand filter (PSF) to reduce
turbidity and then throughactivated charcoal filter (ACF) to
adsorb the residual chlorine and iron in filter water.

BOILER
Boiler is an enclosed vessel in which water is heated and
circulated until the water is turned in to steam at the required
pressure. Coal is burned inside the combustion chamber of
boiler. The products of combustion are nothing but gases.
These gases which are at high temperature vaporize the water
inside the boiler to steam.
Types of Boiler:
1.Fire tube

2.Water tube

WATER TUBE BOILLER

Important parts of Boiler &

their functions
Economizer: Feed water enters into the boiler through
economizer. Its function is to recover residual heat of flue gas
before leaving boiler to preheat feed water prior to its entryinto
boiler drum The drum water is passed through down-comers for
Circulation through the water wall for absorbing heat from
furnace. The economizerre circulation line connects downcomer with the economizer inlet header through an isolating
valve and a non-return valve to protect economizer tubes from
overheating caused by steam entrapment and starvation. This
is done to ensure circulation of water through the tubes during
initial lighting up of boiler, when there is no feed water flow
through economizer.

Drum: Boiler drum is located outside the furnace region or flue

gas path. This stores certain amount of water and separates
steam from steam-water mixture. The minimum drum water
level is always maintained so as to prevent formation of vortex
and to protect water wall tubes (especially its corner tubes)
from steam entrapment / starvation due to higher circulation
ratio of boiler.

Super heater: Super heaters (SH) are meant for elevating the
steam temperature above the saturation temperature in
phases; so that maximum work can be extracted from high
energy (enthalpy) steam and after expansion in Turbine, the
dryness fraction does not reach below 80%, for avoiding
Turbine blade erosion/damage and attaining maximum Turbine
internal efficiency. Steam from Boiler Drum passes through
primary super heater placed in the convective zone of the
furnace, then through platen super heater placed in the radiant
zone of furnace and thereafter, through final super heater
placed in the convective zone. The superheated steam at
requisite pressure and temperature is taken out of boiler to
rotate turbo-generator.

Reheater: In order to improve the cycle efficiency, HP turbine

exhaust steam is taken back to boiler to increase temperature
by reheating process. The steam is passed through Reheater,
placed in between final superheater bank of tubes & platen SH
and finally taken out of boiler to extract work out of it in the IP
and LP turbine.

De-superheater (Attemperator): Though superheaters are

designed to maintain requisite steam temperature, it is

necessary to use de-superheater to control steam temperature.

Feed water, generally taken before feed water control station, is
used for de-superheating steam to control its temperature at
desired level.

TECHNICAL DATA OF THE

BOILER

TURBINE
A steam turbine is a prime mover which continuously converts
the energy of highpressure, high temperature steam supplied
by the boiler into shaft work with lowpressure, low temperature
steam exhausted to a condenser.

Cooling tower
Cooling towers cool the warm water discharged from the
condenser and feed the cooled water backto the condenser.
They thus reduce the cooling water demand in the power
plants. Wet coolingtowers could be mechanically draught or
natural draught. In M.T.P.S the cooling towers are I.D.type for
units 1-6 and natural draught for units 7&8.

CHIMNEY
A chimney may be considered as a cylindrical hollow tower
made of bricks or steel. In MTPS the chimneys of eight units are
made of bricks. Chimneys are used to release the exhaust
gases (coming from the furnace of the boiler)high up in the
atmosphere. So, the height of the chimneys are made high.

ELECTROSTAIC PRECIPITATOR
The principal components of an ESP are 2 sets of electrodes
insulated from each other. First set of rows are electrically
grounded vertical plates called collecting electrodes while the
second set consists of wires called discharge electrodes. the
negatively charged fly ash particles are driven towards the
collecting plate and the positive ions travel to the negatively
charged wire electrodes. Collected particulate matter is
removed from the collecting plates by a mechanical hammer
scrapping system.

ELECTRIC GENERATOR
In M.T.P.S. there are 6 electric generators for units 1 to 6. These
are 3 phase turbo generators, 2 pole cylindrical rotor type
synchronous machines which are directly coupled to the steam
turbine. The generator consist of 2 parts mainly the stator and
the rotor. Stator: The stator body is designed to withstand
internal pressure of hydrogen-air mixture without any residual
deformation. The stator core is built up of segmental punching

of high permeability, low loss CRGOS steel and are in

interleaved manner on spring core bars to reduce heating and
eddy current loss. The stator winding has 3 phase double layer
short corded bar type lap winding having 2 parallel paths. The
winding bars are insulated with mica thermosetting insulation
tape which consists of flexible mica foil, fully saturated with a
synthetic resin having excellent electrical properties. Water
cooled terminal bushings are housed in the lower part of the
stator on the slip ring side. Rotor: Rotor is of cylindrical type
shaft and body forged in one piece from chromium nickel
molybdenum and vanadium steel. Slots are machined on the
outer surface to incorporate windings. Winding consists of coil
made from hand drawn silver copper with bonded insulation.
Generator casing is filled up with H2 gas with required pressure,
purity of gas is always maintained>97%. Propeller type fans are
mounted on either side of the rotor shaft for circulating the
cooling gas inside the generators.

TRANSFORMERS

The electricity thus produced by the generator then goes to the

generating transformer where the voltage is increased for
transmission of electricity with minimized copper losses. In
general a transformer consists of primary and secondary
windings which are insulated from each other by varnish. In
M.T.P.S. all are either oil cooled or air cooled. Some of the
transformer accessories are:
1. Conservator tank
2. Buccholz relay
3. Fans for cooling

4. Lightning arrestors
5. Transformer bushings
6. Breather and silica gel

Generating transformer 1, 2, 3, 4
MVA: 150/200/250 (H.V.)

MVA: 150/200/250 (L.V.)

Volts at no load: 240000 (H.V.)

Volts at no load: 15750 (L.V.)

Ampere line value: 361/482/602 (H.V.)

Ampere line value: 5505/7340/9175 (L.V.)
Phase-3 frequency: 50 Hz.
Mass of core and windings: 139000 kg.
Mass of oil: 38070 kg.
Mass of heaviest package: 164000 kg.
Connection: YNd1 connection.

Generating transformer 5 and 6

MVA: 189/252/315 (H.V.)
MVA: 189/252/315 (L.V.)
Volts at no load: 16.5kV (L.V.)
Volts at no load: 240kV (H.V.)
Ampere line value: 757.57 (H.V.)
Ampere line value: 11022.14 (L.V.)
Phase-3 frequency: 50 Hz.
Mass of core and windings: 155000 kg.
Mass of oil: 53070 kg.

Mass of heaviest package: 18000 kg.

Connection: YNd1 connection.

AUXILIARY TRANSFORMRERS
Station Service Transformers Normal source to the station
auxiliaries and standby source to the unit auxiliaries during
start up and after tripping of the unit is station auxiliary
transformer. Quantity of station service transformers and
their capacity depends upon the unit sizes and nos. Each
station supply transformer shall be one hundred percent
standby of the other. Station service transformers shall cater
to the simultaneous load demand due to start up power
requirements for the largest unit, power requirement for the
station auxiliaries required for running the station and
power requirement for the unit auxiliaries of a running unit
in the event of outage of the unit source of supply. The
no. and approximate capacity of the SST depending upon the
no. and MW rating of the TG sets are indicated below.

Unit Auxiliary Transformer

The normal source of HV Power to unit auxiliaries is unit
auxiliary transformer. The sizing of the UAT is usually based on
the total connected capacity of running unit auxiliaries i.e.,
excluding the stand by drives. It is safe anddesirable to provide
about 20% excess capacity than calculated. The no. and
recommended MVA rating of unit auxiliary transformers are
as shown in the above table: The UATs shall have
Ddo(ungrounded system) or Dy1 (for grounded system)
connection with on load tap changer to provide +10 %
variation in steps of 1.25 %. Usual cooling arrangement to
unit auxiliary transformers are ONAN. Radiators are usually
divided in two equal halves.

Specification
MVA: 12.5/16

Manufacturer: Atlanta Electricals

Volts at no load: 15750 (H.V.)

Volts at no load: 6900 (L.V.)

Ampere line value: 458.2/586.5 (H.V.)

Ampere line value: 1045.9/1338.8 (L.V.)
Phase-3 frequency: 50 Hz.
Mass of core and windings: 14300kg.
Mass of oil: 8600kg
Mass of heaviest package: 25000kg.
Total weight: 30,500 kg.

Unit auxiliary transformer #5 & 6

Type of cooling: ONAN/ONAF (oil natural/ oil natural air force)
Rating (H.V.): 20/16 MVA

Rating (L.V.): 20/16 MVA

No load voltage: 13.5 kV (H.V.) No load voltage: 6.9 kV (L.V.)

Line current: 1673.479/1336.783 amp.
Temperature rise of winding: 55*C
Insulation level: 931 KVI 38kV r.m.s (H.V.)
(L.V.)

60kVI 20Kv r.m.s

CONTROL ROOM UNIT:

The above figure shows the power line diagram in the control
room. It clearly shows how the electric power generated by the
generator is transmitted through the generating transformers
into the bus and the distribution of power by the unit auxiliary
transformers.

EXCITATION SYSTEM
The purpose of excitation system is to continuously provide the
appropriate amount of D.C. field current to the generator field
winding. The excitation system is required to function reliably
under the following conditions of the generator and the
system to which it is connected.
Functional components of an excitation system :
A good excitation system consists of properly co-ordinated
functional components which are
a) Excitation Power source
b) Semiconductor Rectifier
c) Voltage controller

d) Protective, limiting and switching equipments

e) Monitoring, Metering and indicating equipments and
f) Cooling system
Types of Excitation System :
In earlier days DC excitation system was in use. Increase in
generator capacity in turn raised the demand of excitation
power which was notachievable by the DC exciters. This led to
the accelerated development of AC excitation system in
pace with generator capacity. With the maturing of solid state
semiconductor technology AC excitation system found to be
superior technically as well as economically. Excitation system
can be categorized and subdividedinto the following :

a) D.C. excitation system

i) Pilot Main Exciter excitation system
ii) Rotating Amplifier excitation system.

b) A.C. excitation system

i) Rotating High Frequency excitation system
ii) Static excitation system
iii) Brushless excitation system

SWITCHYARD SECTION
A switchyard is essentially a hub for electrical power
sources. For instance, a switchyard will exist at a generating
station to coordinate the exchange of power between the
generators and the transmission lines in the area. A switchyard
will also exist when high voltage lines need to be converted to
lower voltage for distribution to consumers. Here in MTPS there
is a big switch yard section for the units one to six, and also for

seven & eight there also a switch yard. Some of the operation
of the components of the switch yard is sometimes done from
the control rooms of respective units. That is the switch yard
under each unit is sometimes control from the control rooms of
each unit respectively

A switchyard may be considered as a junction point where

electrical power is coming in from one or more sources and is
going out through one or more circuits. This junction point is in
the form of a high capacity conductor spread from one end to
the other end of the yard. As the switchyard handles large
amount of power, it is necessary that it remains secure and
serviceable to supply the outgoing transmission feeder
seven under conditions of major equipment or bus failure.
There are differentschemes available for bus bar and
associated equipment connection to facilitate switching
operation. The important points which dictate the choice
of bus switching scheme are
a. Operational flexibility.
b. Ease of maintenance.
c. System security.
d. Ease of sectionalizing.
e. Simplicity of protection scheme.
f. Installation cost and land requirement.

g. Ease of extension in future.

The basic components of a switchyard

are as follows:
1.Circuit breaker:
A circuit breaker is an equipment that breaks a circuit either
manually or automatically under all conditions at no load, full
load or short circuit. Oil circuit breakers, vacuum circuit
breakers and SF6 circuit breakers are a few types of circuit
breakers.
2.Isolator:
Isolators are switches which isolate the circuit at times and thus
serve the purpose of protection during off load operation.
3.Current

Transformer :

These transformers used serve the purpose of protection and

metering. Generally the same transformer can be used as a
current or potential transformer depending on the type of
connection with the main circuit that is series or parallel

respectively.

In

electrical

system

it

is

necessary

to

a) Read current and power factor

b) Meter power consumption.
c) Detect abnormalities and feed impulse to protective
devices.

4.Potential transformers :
In any electrical power system it is necessary to
a) Monitor voltage and power factor,
b) Meter power consumption,
c) Feed power to control and indication circuit and
d) Detect abnormalities
(i.e. under/over voltage, direction of power flow etc) and
feed impulse to protective device/alarm circuit. Standard relay
and metering equipments does not permit them to be
connected directly to the high voltage system.Potential
transformers therefore play a key role by performing the
following functions.

a) Electrically isolating the instruments and relays from

HV side.
b)
By transferring voltage from higher values to
proportional standardized lower values.

POWER TRANSFORMER:
The use of power transformer in a switchyard is to change the
voltage level. At the sending
and usually
step
up
transformers are used to evacuate power at transmission
voltage level. On the other hand at the receiving end step down
transformers are installed to match
the voltage to
sub
transmission or distribution level. In many switchyards
autotransformers are used widely for interconnecting two
switchyards with different voltage level (such as 132 and 220
KV)

1-Main tank
2-Radiator
3-Reservoir tank
4-Bushing
5-WTI & OTI Index
6-Breather
7-Buccholz relay

Insulator
The live equipments are mounted over the steel
structures or suspended from gantries with sufficient
insulation in between them. In outdoor use electrical
porcelain insulators are most widely used. Following two
types of insulators are used in switchyard.
a. Pedestal type

b. Disc type Pedestal type insulators

are used on steel structures for rigid supporting of the pipe bus
bars, for holding the blade and the fixed contacts of the
isolators.

Electric power is generated by the generator which is circulated

to the main bus 1 or 2 and accordingly the respective isolator is
closed. In case of any fault in the circuit breaker the power from
the generator goes via the transfer bus into the main bus by
means of the bus coupler. A bus tie represents the connection
between the two main buses. Two 80MVA transformers draw
power from the main buses and transfer the voltage to 33kV
and the power goes to 33kV switchyard. A station service
transformer supplies power to the auxiliary load.

The above figure shows the power flow diagram of 33kV

switchyard.
The electric power after voltage transformation to 33kV by
80MVA transformers goes to the main bus of the 33kV
switchyard from where power is fed to various industries and
other nearbystations. There are two earthing transformers in
the yard. From the bus the power is fed to two 5MVA
transformers which step down the voltage level to 11kV and is
thus distributed to the locality.

THE TYPE OF RELAYS USED IN MTPS FOR

PROTECTION
OF
POWER
SYSTEM
COMPONENTS
Auxiliary relay for isolations
Fail accept relay
Directional over current relay
Master trip relay
Multi relay for generator function
Supervision relay

 Instantaneous relay
Bus bar trip relay
Lock out relay
Numerical LBB protection relay
Transformer differential protection relay
Circulating differential protection relay
Contact multi-relay
Auxiliary relay
Trip circuit R-Phase relay
EUS section relay
DC fail accept relay
Trip circuit R-phase super relay Y-phase B-phase
LBB protection relay.

SOME PUMP & MOTOR IS USED IN MTPS

PUMP :Service water pump -360Kw
Primary air fan(PA fan) -800Kw
Coal mill motor -2250Kw
Condense extraction pump -500Kw

MOTOR :Boiler feed pump motor -3500Kw

ID fan motor -1500Kw
FD fan motor -1000Kw

CW pump motor -1200Kw

SWITCHGEAR
HV SWITCHGEARS
Indoor metal clad draw out type switchgears with associated
protective and control equipments are employed (fig. 2). Air
break, Air Blast circuit breakers and Minimum Oil circuit
breakers could still be found in some very old stations.
Present trend is to use SF6or vacuum circuit breakers. SF6 and
vacuum circuit breakers requires smaller size panels and
thereby reasonable amount of space is saved. Fig. 2: General
arrangement of 6.6 KV switchgear panels The main bus bars
of the switchgears are most commonly made up of high
conductivity aluminium or aluminium alloy with rectangular
cross section mounted in side the switchgear cubicle
supported by moulded epoxy, fibre glass or porcelain
insulators. For higher current rating copper bus bars are
sometimes used in switchgears.

LV SWITCHGEARS
LV switchgears feed power supply to motors above 110 KW and
upto160 KW rating and to Motor Control Centers (M.C.C). LV
system is also a grounded system where the neutral of
transformers are solidly connected to ground. The duty
involves momentary loading, total load throw off, direct on
line starting of motors and under certain emergency
condition automatic transfer of loads from one source of supply
to the other. The switchgear consists of metal clad continuous
line up of multi tier draw out type cubicles of simple and robust
construction. Each feeder is provided with an individual front
access door. The main bus bars and connections shall be of
high grade aluminium or aluminium alloy sized for the
specified current rating. The circuit breakers used in the LV
switchgear shall be air break 3 pole with stored energy, trip

free shunt trip mechanism. These are draw out type with
three distinct position namely, Service, Test and Isolated. Each
position shall have mechanical as well as electrical
indication. Provision shall be there for local and remote
electrical operation of the breakers. Mechanical trip push
button shall be provided to trip manually in the event of failure
of electrical trip circuit. Safety interlocks shall be provided to
prevent insertion and removal of closed breaker from
Service position to Test position and vice versa.

SWITCHING SCHEMES
One Main Bus and Transfer Bus scheme
This scheme is used in switchyards up to 132 KV. Under normal
condition all feeders arefed through their respective circuit
breakers from the main bus bar. During shutdown or outage of
any feeder breaker, that feeder can be transferred to transfer
bus and diverted through bus coupler breaker. In that case the
protection shall be transferred to the bus coupler circuit breaker
by changing the position of the trip transfer switch located at
the switchyard control panel. This diversion of the feeder from

its own circuit breaker to bus coupler circuit breaker and the
vice versa is possible even in live condition without any
interruption of supply to that feeder. In case of any main bus
fault the entire switchyard will collapse. To avoid such total
collapse of the switchyard a bus section circuit breaker is
provided in the middle position of the main bus.

Two Main Bus and One transfer Bus scheme

In this scheme there is an arrangement for a duplicate main
bus (MB). All the feeders in the yard may be connected to
either MB # 1 or MB # 2 or may be divided in two
groups and distributed in two buses. In case of outage of
any circuit breaker that feeder can be diverted through bus
coupler breaker. Bus tie breaker is used to tie up MB #1 & MB #
2.

One and Half Breaker Scheme

In one and half breaker scheme (Fig. 4) under normal
condition all the circuit breakers will remain closed. At the
time of maintenance of feeder breaker, only that breaker
would be kept open and isolated. During maintenance of
bus, all the breakers connected to that bus would remain
open to isolate the bus. At that time, the power supply
may be maintained through other bus. All equipments in the
switchyard except the line side isolators can be maintained
without taking shut down of any feeder. This scheme has
gained popularity in many 400 KV switchyards in our country.

GENERATOR PROTECTION
The purpose of generator protection is to provide
protection against abnormal operating condition and during
fault condition. In the first case the machine and the associated
circuit may be in order but the operating parameters (load,
frequency, temperature) and beyond the specified limits.
Such abnormal running condition would result in gradual
deterioration and ultimately lead to failure of the generator.

Protection under abnormal running

conditions
a)

Over

current

protection:

The over current

protection is used in generator protection against external
faults as back up protection. Normally external short circuits
are cleared by protection of the faulty section and are not
dangerous to the generator. If this protection fails the short
circuit current contributed by the generator is normally
higher than the rated current of the generator and cause over
heating of the stator, hence generators are provided with
back up over current protection which is usually definite time
lag over current relay.

b) Over load protection: Persistent

over load in rotor

and stator circuit cause heating of winding and temperature
rise of the machine. Permissible duration of the stator and
rotor overload depends upon the class of insulation, thermal
time constant, cooling of the machine and is usually
recommended by the manufacturer. Beyond these limits
the running of the machine is not recommended and
overload protection thermal relays fed by current transformer
or thermal sensors are provided.

c) Over voltage protection:

The over voltage at the

generator terminals may b e caused by sudden drop of load
and AVR malfunctioning. High voltage surges in the system
(switching surges or lightning) may also cause over voltage
at
the generator terminals. Modern high speed voltage
regulators adjust the excitation current to take care against
the high voltage due to load rejection. Lightning arresters
connected across the generator transformer terminals take
care of the sudden high voltages due to external surges. As
such no special protection against generator high voltage may
be needed. Further protection provided against high magnetic
flux takes care of dangerous increase of voltage.

d)

Unbalance

loading

protection:

Unbalance
loading is caused by single phase short circuit outside the
generator, opening of oneof the contacts of the generator
circuit breaker, snapping of conductors in the switchyard or
excessive single phase load. Unbalance load produces ve
phase sequence current which cause overheating of the
rotor surface and mechanical vibration. Normally 10% of
unbalance is permitted provided phase currents do not
exceed the rated values. For ve phase sequence currents
above 5-10% of rated value dangerous over heating of rotor
is caused and protection against this is an essential
requirement.

f) Loss of prime mover protection:

In the event
of loss of prime mover the generator operates as a motor
and drives the prime mover itself. In some cases this condition
could be very harmful as in the case of steam turbine sets
where steam acts as coolant, maintaining the turbine blades at
a constant temperature and the failure of steam results in
overheating due to friction and windage loss with subsequent
distortion of the turbine blade. This can be sensed by a power
relay with a directional characteristic and the machine can be
taken out of bar under this condition. Because of the same
reason a continuousvery low level of output from thermal sets
are not permissible.

Protection under fault condition

a) Differential protection:

The protection is used for

detection of internal faults in a specified zone defined by the
CTs supplying the differential relay. For an unit connected
system separate differential relays are provided for generator,
generator transformer and unit auxiliary transformer in
addition to the overall differential protection. In order to
restrict damage very high
differential relay sensitivity is
demanded but sensitivity is limited by C.T errors, high
inrush current during external fault and transformer tap
changer variations.

b) Back up impedance protection:

This protection is
basically designed as back up protection for the part of the
installation situated between the generator and the
associated generator and unit auxiliary transformers. A back up
protection in the form of minimum impedance measurement is
used, in which the current windings are connected to the CTs in
the neutral connection of the generator and its voltage
windings through a P.T to the phase to phase terminal
voltage. The pick up impedance is set to such a value that it
is only energized by short circuits in the zone specified above
and does not respond to faults beyond the transformers.

c)

Stator earth fault protection:

The earth fault

protection is the protection of the generator against damages
caused by the failure of insulation to earth.
Present
practice of grounding the generator neutral is so designed
that the earth fault current is limited within 5 and 10 Amp.
Fault current beyond this limit may cause serious damage to
the core laminations. This leads to very high eddy current loss
with resultant heating and melting of the core.

d) 95% stator earth fault protection:

Inverse time
voltage relay connected across the secondary of the high
impedance neutral grounding transformer relay is used for
protection of around 95% of the stator winding against earth
fault.

e) 100% stator earth fault protection:

Earth fault in
the entire stator circuits are detected by a selective earth
fault protection covering 100% of the stator windings. This
100% E/f relay monitors the whole stator winding by means of a
coded signal current continuously injected in the generator
winding through a coupling.
Under normal running
condition the signal current flows only in the stray
capacitances of the directly connected system circuit.
f) Rotor earth fault protection:
Normally a single rotor
earth fault is not so dangerous as the rotor circuit is
unearthed and current at fault point is zero. So only alarm is
provided on occurrence of 1st rotor earth fault. On occurrence
of the 2nd rotor earth fault between the points of fault the
field winding gets short circuited. The current in field circuit
increases, resulting in heating of the field circuit and the
exciter. But the more dangerous is disturbed symmetry of
magnetic circuit due to partial short circuited coils leading
to mechanical unbalance.

MOTORS FOR THERMAL POWER PLANT

All the motors in Thermal Power Stations shall be of the 3-ph.

A.C. squirrel cage type except for some auxiliaries, which are
emergent in nature,for which DC motors shall be used. For
some small valves, single phase motors may be used. All
A.C. motors shall be suitable for direct on line starting.

Battery Bank
Normally D.C. power is supplied by the float charger and the
batteries are kept in float condition at 2.15 V per cell to avoid
discharging. The charger consists of silicon diode or thyristor
rectifiers preferably working on 3 ph. 415 V supply in
conjunction with an automatic voltage regulator. When there
is a failure in the A.C. supply the batteries will come into
operation and in this process the batteries run down
within few hours.
After normalization of A.C. power the
batteries are charged quickly by using the boost charger at
2.75 V per cell. During this time the float chargeris isolated and
load is connected through the tap off point. After normalization
of battery voltage these are again put back into the float
charging mode. The output from the battery as well as the
charger is connected to the D.C. distribution board. From
D.C. distribution board power supply is distributed to different
circuits. D.C. system being at the core of the protection and
control mechanism very often two 100% capacity boards
with individual chargers and battery sets are used from
the consideration of the reliability and maintenance facility.
These two boards are interconnected by suitable tie lines.

CONCLUSION
The practical experience that I have gathered
during the overview training of large thermal
power plant having a large capacity of 2340 MW
for Unit# I to VIII in three weeks will be very
useful as a stepping stone in building bright
professional career in future life. It gave me large
spectrum to utilize the theoretical knowledge and
to put it into practice. The trouble shooting
activities in operation and decision making in
case of crisis made me more confident to work in
the industrial atmosphere. Moreover, this
overview training has also given a self realization
& hands-on experience in developing the
personality, interpersonal relationship with the
professional executives, staffs and to develop the
leadership ability in industry dealing with workers
of all categories. I would like to thank everybody
who has been a part of this project, without
whom this project would never be completed
with such ease.